CHAPTER VI.
LARGE ROASTS.
Since roast or rather baked meats so often play the chief part in American dinners, a few directions will be useful in connection with their cooking. The object in cooking meat is to prepare it for easy mastication and complete digestion; and it should be accomplished with the least possible waste of the valuable juices of the meat. The roasting of meat before the fire is not often possible in ordinary kitchens, but with a well managed oven the same result can be attained. If meat is placed before a slow fire, or in a cool oven, the little heat that reaches it serves only to draw out its juices, and with them its nutritious elements. The albumen of its cut surfaces coagulates at the temperature of a bright, clear fire, or a hot oven, and thus seals up the juices so that only a part of them escape, and those are collected in the form of a rich brown, highly flavored crust, upon the surface of well roasted meat. A good temperature for baking meat is from 320° to 400° Fahr. If the meat is put into a very hot oven for a few moments to harden the outside, the heat can subsequently be moderated, and the cooking finished more slowly, so that the meat will be sufficiently well done, but not burned. Meats should be roasted about twenty minutes to a pound, to be moderately well done; the fire should be clear, and steady, in order that an equal heat may reach the joint and keep its interior steam at the proper degree of heat; after the right length of time has elapsed, care being taken meantime that the meat does not burn, it may be tested by pressing it with the fingers; if it is rare it will spring back when the pressure is removed; if it is moderately well done the resistance to pressure will be very slight; and if it is thoroughly cooked it will remain heavy under the fingers; never test it by cutting into it with a knife, or puncturing it with a fork, for in this way you waste the rich juices. If you wish to froth roast meat, dredge a little flour over its surface, and brown it a few moments before serving it. If it is to be glazed, brush it with clear stock concentrated to a paste by rapid boiling, or dust a little powdered sugar over it, and in both cases return it to the oven to set the glaze.
90. Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding.—Have three ribs of prime beef prepared by the butcher for roasting, all the bones being taken out if it is desirable to carve a clean slice off the top; secure it in place with stout twine; do not use skewers, as the unnecessary holes they make permit the meat-juices to escape; lay it in the dripping pan on a bed of the following vegetables, cut in small pieces; one small onion, half a carrot, half a turnip, three sprigs of parsley, one sprig of thyme, and three bay leaves; do not put any water in the dripping pan; its temperature can not rise to a degree equal in heat to that of the fat outside of the beef, and can not assist in its cooking, but serves only to lower the temperature of the meat, where it touches it, and consequently to soften the surface and extract the juices; do not season it until the surface is partly carbonized by the heat, as salt applied to the cut fibre draws out their juices. If you use a roasting oven before the fire, the meat should be similarly prepared by tying in place, and it should be put on the spit carefully; sufficient drippings for basting will flow from it, and it should be seasoned when half done; when entirely done, which will be in fifteen minutes to each pound of meat, the joint should be kept hot until served, but should be served as soon as possible to be good. When gravy is made, half a pint of hot water should be added to the dripping pan, after the vegetables have been removed, and the gravy should be boiled briskly for a few minutes, until it is thick enough, and seasoned to suit the palate of the family; some persons thicken it with a teaspoonful of flour, which should be mixed with two tablespoonfuls of cold water before it is stirred into the gravy.
91. Yorkshire Pudding.—Put seven ounces of flour into a bowl with one teaspoonful of salt; mix it smoothly with enough milk, say half a pint, to make a smooth, stiff batter; then gradually add enough more milk to amount in all to one pint and a half, and three eggs well beaten; mix it thoroughly with an egg-whip, pour it into a well buttered baking pan, bake it in the oven one hour and a half, if it is to be served with baked beef; or if it is to accompany beef roasted before the fire, one hour in the oven, and then half an hour under the meat on the spit, to catch the gravy which flows from the joint. To serve it cut it into pieces two or three inches square before taking it from the pan, and send it to the table on a hot dish covered with a napkin, with the roast beef.
92. Roast Loin of Veal.—Take out the chine, or back-bone, from a loin of veal weighing about six pounds, being careful to leave the piece of meat as whole as possible; chop up the bones and put them in a dripping pan with two ounces of carrot, one ounce of turnip, and quarter of an ounce of parsley; stuff the veal with a forcemeat made as in receipt No. 93, roll it up neatly, tie it firmly with stout cord, lay it on the vegetables in the pan, and roast it one hour and a half. When done take it from the pan, and keep it hot while you prepare the gravy by putting half a pint of hot water in the pan, boiling it up once, and straining it; or if desirable thicken it with a teaspoonful of flour smoothly dissolved in two tablespoonfuls of cold water and stirred with the gravy.
93. Stuffing for Veal.—Cut two ounces of salt pork in quarter inch dice, and fry it brown in half an ounce of butter, with one ounce of chopped onion; while these ingredients are frying, soak eight ounces of stale bread in tepid water, and then wring it dry in a napkin; add it to the onion when it is brown, with one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, half a saltspoonful of powdered thyme, and the same quantity of dried and powdered celery, and white pepper, and one teaspoonful of salt; mix all these over the fire until they are scalding hot, and cleave from the pan; then stir in one raw egg, and use it with the veal.
94. Roast Lamb with Mint Sauce.—Choose a plump, fat fore-quarter of lamb, which is quite as finely flavored and less expensive than the hind-quarter; secure it in shape with stout cord, lay it in a dripping pan with one sprig of parsley, three sprigs of mint, and one ounce of carrot sliced; put it into a quick oven, and roast it fifteen minutes to each pound; when half done season it with salt and pepper, and baste it occasionally with the drippings flowing from it. When done serve it with a gravy-boat full of mint sauce.